I am writing from Damascus. I returned here after 13 years of absence, and I do not believe it is necessary to explain the reason. Like millions of Syrians, I fled my country and was forced into exile because of the crimes of the Assad regime.

Today, as Syria is free, the prevailing discourse focuses on the reconstruction of the country and its future, a Syria that belongs to all Syrians. In reality, there is no time to waste on distinctions between Muslims and Christians, Kurds or Druze, because all aspire to a strong, unified and prosperous Syria. This statement concerns the genuine Syrian citizen and does not, under any circumstances, refer to advocates of separatist projects or remnants of armed factions.

Bashar Assad did not act alone. He was supported by states such as Iran and Russia, as well as by coalitions and parties, notably Hezbollah. He also benefited from the support of ethnic groupings driven by the pursuit of material and personal gains, or motivated by sectarian considerations that the regime cultivated for more than 50 years. By way of example, one can cite certain Armenian groups in Aleppo, particularly structures linked to the PKK.

At the beginning of the revolution, Assad established a militia known as the "Popular Protection Committees” to suppress protesters. In predominantly Kurdish areas, this formation was called the "Kurdish Protection Committees” before later becoming the "People’s Defense Units.” Their mission was to repress demonstrations in majority-Kurdish areas, such as the neighborhoods of Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud in Aleppo, where any mobilization against Assad was met with severe repression.

It follows that the People’s Defense Units are a direct creation of the regime’s intelligence services.

What stood out most during the recent events in Aleppo was the scale of popular support for government forces. This support was not coincidental. It resulted from relatively disciplined military behavior and a coherent political and media discourse that sought to avoid unnecessary escalation and emphasized that the objective was to impose security, not revenge. This conduct significantly improved the image of the Syrian security forces, an image that had been seriously damaged following events on the coast and in Suwayda, thus giving the operation a dimension of restoring trust between the state and certain segments of society. Added to this was the clarity regarding responsibility for the violence, namely the U.S.-backed Syria wing of the PKK terrorist group, whose lethal practices had exhausted a population worn down by an endless cycle of violence.

At the regional and international levels, despite the absence of official positions, one can discern a form of tacit acceptance of what occurred, due to the priority many actors place on stability and Syria’s territorial unity. This factor will inevitably weigh on the future of any negotiation process between Damascus and the YPG terrorists. The talks following the events in Aleppo cannot be identical to those that preceded them. The Syrian government now enters them from a strengthened political position, while the YPG is forced to revise its calculations, shifting from a strategy of imposing conditions to seeking more modest and realistic compromises.

Aleppo and collapse of illusions

The defeat of the YPG in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood is not merely a military defeat but also a political one, whose psychological impact will be strongly felt on the coast and in Suwayda, among those who had bet on illusory external support. More importantly, their leader Ferhat Abdi Şahin, code-named "Mazloum Kobani," has realized that the American and European positions observed in this battle could be replicated in the east, that Israeli aircraft will not take off for him in the far north and that a return to Damascus, while respecting already signed commitments, constitutes the only path to ending the adventures of Qandil. This option, however, is rapidly closing, at the risk of leaving him with no exit.

The YPG's behavior is perplexing. Their persistence in staging narratives and spreading falsehoods is difficult to comprehend. It is equally surprising that they seem to have forgotten that only a few months have passed since the fall of Assad and the collapse of his worn-out rhetoric, and that their methods no longer deceive Syrians who are weary and exasperated by such practices.

Their attempt to deny geography, reality and logic in the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh in Aleppo is equally revealing. The fate of the residents of these neighborhoods, even when they are Kurdish, matters little to the YPG, which holds them hostage to political calculations. Even under the unrealistic assumption that the federalism project they advocate were to materialize – a project rejected by the Syrian citizen even before being rejected by the state – could a federation realistically be reduced to part of a city such as Aleppo? Is such a construct viable on the ground? It is imperative not to draw the Kurds of Aleppo into this conflict, to allow them to live safely in their natural environment, and to avoid inflaming tensions that would undermine coexistence. They have always lived as a full component of the city, until the emergence of these terrorist organizations that seek to distort history and geography.

The YPG separatist currents constitute a force of "occupation,” both internal and external, imposed through Western and Israeli support from the early days of the revolution. YPG forces broke away from the revolutionary consensus and participated in conferences and meetings solely to sabotage them, fragment unity and impose their own vision. At every conference, meeting and forum of the revolution, the separatist YPG presents a major obstacle to any attempt at understanding or agreement, under the guise of deceptive titles and misleading slogans.

It has already been stated that the YPG has committed, and continues to commit, the same crimes perpetrated by the Assad regime against the Syrian people of all confessions. By way of example, the al-Babiri pumping station, the main source of water supply for the city of Aleppo and its countryside, is under the control of this terrorist organization. The deliberate water cutoff caused direct damage across the entire province, with severe repercussions for citizens’ lives and essential services. The Syrian Ministry of Energy issued a statement holding the YPG fully responsible for this deliberate interruption, describing the attack on vital infrastructure and the deprivation of citizens of their fundamental rights as a flagrant violation of all humanitarian and international laws and norms.

Tom Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Türkiye and special envoy for Syria, has stated his desire for constructive dialogue aimed at pushing the YPG toward comprehensive and responsible integration within the Syrian state. Responsible, but how can the protection of the population be entrusted to an actor described as murderous, and how can it be allowed to participate in the reconstruction of a country that is not its own, while receiving its orders from the Qandil Mountains? Moreover, internal YPG sources confirm the launch of a negotiation process between the YPG leadership and the Syrian government, under international mediation, to examine security arrangements leading to the dismantling of the organization according to a preliminary agreement and a timetable not exceeding one month, in exchange for a halt to government military operations in Aleppo. These same sources indicate that opening discussions on the exclusion of the PKK constitutes a first step imposed by international mediation to establish genuine negotiations, as these elements are not Syrian in origin.

What Syrians wish

No Syrian wishes to relive the ordeals endured, even if they had the capacity to do so, and there is a deep conviction that the Syrian state does not wish this either and has done everything in its power to prevent it. No Syrian desires to see anyone expelled from their home. Yet the YPG deluded itself into believing it could build an outlaw entity composed of two neighborhoods within a province containing dozens of neighborhoods, and claim the right to determine the future of an entire province, or even the state.

The social fragmentation among certain Syrian components is deeply regrettable, and even more regrettable is the instrumentalization of civilians as a means of political and military pressure to extract additional gains on the ground. Syrians had hoped that these disputes would be resolved around a dialogue table, far from violence and weapons, among Syrians. Every drop of blood shed is a loss for Syria as a whole. Sooner or later, all parties will arrive at political solutions, under international or local mediation, but the greatest loser will remain the Syrian people in all its components. The scenes we witness today, impossible to forget, are those of victims used as mere instruments of pressure.

Syrians reject U.S. President Donald Trump’s statements in which he claims, "Our relations would be good with both the Kurds and Syria.” How can one place on equal footing a state, a people and a nation with a criminal group? The YPG, a terrorist organization, we repeat this tirelessly, does not represent Syrian Kurds.

To those who place their bets on external actors, it must be recalled that foreigners may support you for one year, 10 or even 20 years, but they will inevitably abandon you once their interests are fulfilled. Russia supported the Assad regime for years before discarding it at a low price. Iran supported Hezbollah and dozens of other militias before sacrificing them. Israel supported the South Lebanon Army for 25 years. It is time to rid Syria of PKK terrorism and all its offshoots, whatever names they adopt, claiming democracy in name only.